Ten Covers I'd Like to Hear

These go round and round in my head, and I'd dearly like to make any one of them happen. I'm also pretty sure there's no way I'll get the opportunity, so I'm just putting them out there in the hopes someone might think "Hey".

What songs would you like to hear done by different artists or converted into odd genres?

Here's my list:

1) I want to see a Texas swing band, start up a nice gliding slow tune.  A large man in a big hat steps up to the mike, and without taking the cigar out from the right side of his mouth starts in "Id'nit Ro-manic . . ."  He sings the first 12 bars this way, and then removes the cigar and completes the song in a nice thick, tuneful drawl.

2) A heavy metal metal band is cranking along.  It's even a little hard to count time, or guess the key, it's so loud.  A wirey little guy with an AC/DC screech comes up to the mic and sings, "I know it's kinda laaaate!  I hope I didn't wake yaaaaa!  What I gotta say can't waaaait!  (Ihopeyoullunderstand).  Ev'ry. Time I. Try ta tell ya. The words just come out wrooooong!  So, I guess I'll have to tell ya.  In a soooooooooong!"  And the rest of the band chimes in for this chorus with their best monster truck announcer voices: "Tell ya; tell ya.  In a soooong!  Tell ya; tell ya.  In a sooooong!"

3) When we were kids the local juke box company would sell scratchy singles for a nickel.  One of the records we bought was Burl Ives singing "On the Beach at Waikiki". This song has the line "Oo-na-kah oo-ah weeky-weeky", and it's a very sweet innocent song about a native girl teaching the guy how to speak her language.  Okay – remember Andy Kaufmann's character Tony Clifton, the ultimate lounge lizard?  I want to hear Tony do that song, because "Oo-na-kah oo-ah weeky-weeky" would sound oh so creepy with Tony singing it.

4) 1950s Cuban Cha Cha bands are a favorite of mine, and I want to hear one do a Cha Cha version of "20 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (in Spanish of course).  Actually, it wouldn't all be Cha Cha, because the bridge "Step out the back Jack" wants to be more of a Brazilian rhythm. So it would alternate back and forth from Cuban to Brazilian.

5) Led Zeppelin has wandered into several genres besides acid blues, and I have this opinion that "In My Time of Dying" is actually a Gospel tune. I want to hear that song adapted for a full African American Gospel Chorus, but I want Robert Plant to sing the lead.  His take on the sound of eternal bliss makes Jerry Lee Lewis' "feels good" sound like "Sir, may I carry your daughter's books home from school."

6) While we're on Zeppelin, I'd like to hear Dyer Maker done in full out reggae.

7) If there's one song I'd dying to hear as elevator Muzak, it's Born in the USA.  It's already the most repetitive song ever written, and I can just imagine being stuck in an elevator hearing "dee dee-dee dee-dee-dee" over and over and over and over and over . . .

8) John Hendricks is the king of Vocaleese (am I spelling that right?).  In other words he takes classic instrumental pieces and puts words to them.  I want to hear him sing "Flight of the Bumble Bee".

9) Another John Hendricks cover I'd like to hear is "Hideaway", the classic covered by Eric Clapton when he was with the Blues Breakers.  I even have the first few lyrics: "I'm gonna be late. I don't have the time for sittin' in traffic.  Hey folks move it along you're holdin' things up now . . ."

10) Finally, who wouldn't want to hear an oboe quartet perform Smoke on the Water?